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Photos show injuries Calgary man says he sustained at hands of police officers

Photos provided by Clayton Prince, the 34-year-old Calgary man who suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and other serious injuries during a violent arrest on July 30, 2016. Three Calgary police officers have since been charged criminally in connection to the incident.

Panic, Clayton Prince says — flat out panic is what caused him to flee from Calgary police officers one night last July.

The 34-year-old Calgary man doesn't deny he ran, and he doesn't deny he had marijuana on him, but several months later he still doesn't understand how that led to his being laid up in a hospital with broken ribs, a collapsed lung and infected wounds.

It's alleged that when the officers caught up to Prince after he ran from a traffic stop over an obscured license plate they assaulted him while he was prone on the ground, while he was cuffed and even after he was secured in a cruiser.

Prince was charged with resisting arrest and possession of marijuana.

In a Facebook interview, Prince told Postmedia his version of events.

"I went to Calgary to go watch Chasing Summer — I noticed a cop (following) me so I went into a parking space in some (restaurant). I panicked then ran (because) I had like eight grams of weed," Prince said.

"They saw me a couple minutes later ... I didn't resist and I went to the ground right away with my hands behind my head," he claimed.

"One cop got to me and started hitting me in ribs then a couple other cops got there and they were all hitting me when I was on ground, (defenceless). They threw me into a cop car where I hit the side of the door (and) cut my lip open got three stitches on my lip and two broken ribs and a (collapsed) lung," he alleged.

"One stabbed me with a key in back of the ear (and that) got infected ... I was in (the) hospital for five days. They had a hose inside me to drain all the blood from my lungs."

Calgary Police Service Constables Mike Sandalack, Kevin Humphrey and James Othen each face a charge of assault causing bodily harm for the July 30 incident. Othen and Humphrey also face two charges each of public mischief for allegedly lying about the incident after the fact, and Othen faces an additional charge of assault with a weapon.

Their conduct, along with that of a fourth officer, was investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team in the wake of the incident after video footage captured by the dashboard camera of one of the police cars at the scene became a piece of evidence.

After the investigation it was determined no criminal charges would be laid against the fourth officer, who CPS Chief Roger Chaffin has said would likely return to active duty.